My understanding is that the gas wouldn't go from, for instance, $1.319 to $1.35 unless you bought just one unit. If you bought 10 gallons, for $13.19, it'd round to $13.20. It's not quite the windfall some are suggesting. And yes, in certain circumstances the tax increase percentage-wise would be high, but in real life, I doubt it's going to be that much different. Some of the arguments on both sides of this reminds me of the arguments years ago over going to the metric system. My one teacher in school was talking about it and saying look what would happen for instance in football games. How many times is a play short or over by an inch or two so now if you change it from yards to meters it would make a difference in the game... Yeah, this was a teacher... need I say more? LOL I use pennies. I never understood the idea of keeping buckets of coins. You're not "saving" anything by keeping barrels of coins around the house. You're spending the bills to get the coins to put in the bucket, and I like to keep the bills rather than the coins. For that matter, except for keeping some 1s for tipping I prefer to keep the larger bills and spend the smaller ones rather than pile up the small stuff. I know some feel like they have more if they have 20 $1 bills than they do if they have 2-10s or a $20 bill. I'm not that way. I don't find it that problematic to use coins rather than bills. If I get a pocketful of change I'll pay with the change when I can. I used to keep a cup in the house for change but ran into the problem that it sat there and I figured enough of that. You usually have to make a special trip somewhere to cash in the coins and at $3+ per gallon, you lose a lot of pennies making the trip to say nothing of the waste of time and effort to grunt it down there. I do keep a little cup in my vehicle with some change in it for parking meters, emergency money, etc. If I get an excess of pennies in there, I've been known to pay a $3.07 total with seven pennies (and occasionally even use up some quarters) rather than let them pile up. Easy to do at a drive up window. You normally have to wait and gives you plenty of time to get the right change and even use all change for the purchase, like my $1.07 cup of coffee on which I'll occasionally splurge. (I don't go to the MegaBucks coffee house!) If I find a lot of change in the cup, I'll take in some and use as part of the tip too when I eat out. Not even an effort to reach in, grab some coins and put in the pocket as I'm walking into the restaurant. Seems to me the "bucket brigade" folks are only fooling themselves most of the time, much like those who believe they have a windfall of a savings account by overpaying their withholding on income taxes each year so they get a bigger check at tax paying time. The "windfall" they don't even save, but figure "How can I spend this now?" I shake my head in disbelief at that one too! I will say though, for the few who simply cannot budget at all, then maybe the bucket "savings" could help them. Sort of like the "envelope system" that some use though most abuse. But, that's my opinion derived from observation so if it makes you happy, go ahead. I'm sure I'll get another lecture! LOL Much of my frugality was learned back when there was some noticeable interest being paid at banks so it was worth it to keep as much money in the bank as you could keep there. Now that's gone but I believe the lessons learned are still good. The US citizens rejected dollar coins then some "genius" came up with the SueBee which was laughingly rejected. (Still laugh when I think about the southerner saying "No way! Don't want no broad on mah muney!) I personally refuse to accept them if I get them in change. Guess if they do ban "paper" here, I'll have to go only to places that take credit cards. People don't "change" easily. People still want the perceived "lower" price as proven by the success of the "Cost Club" stores, dollar stores and the 10% off clearance racks where they were marked *up* 25% the week before. It's a fact in retail business that the 99¢ item still sells better than $1.00, except occasionally when there's a $1 area that can have things higher per unit than others. I guess for the real penny-pinchers the the "penny pitching" would encourage buying more since buying 5 - 99¢ non-taxable items would cost less per unit than buying 1-4 of them with the tax round-up. I do question if this is going to cause an accounting nightmare. Tax is (usually) based on a percentage of the sales, so the extra is extra profit for the store? Then to be taxed again? Or do the Feds (or in Canada, the Parls?) accept the amount the cash register says is their share? On small amounts it's of no consequence but a big store will have a difference I would think. All this hoopla over pennies... Hmm. Says something about society doesn't it?

Oh it makes perfect sense and I hear where you coming from. Also Canadian but have US citizenship for the purpose of protecting myself in the event that husband goes first. I love the States, see myself being here forever, but I fought the citizenship route due to having to "renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen". Like it or not the citizenship route is the best way to go to avoid problems. Second best is the qualified domestic trust. The trust can be done post mortum actually. We looked into this trust, but if I remember correctly the big factor was that IÂd pay estate taxes on any disbursement of the principle unless I could prove hardship. No putting off the estate tax until I died if I cut into the principle. I just didnÂt want to let the IRS interpret "hardship". There were also a lot of loopholes and situations put forth by our CPA, which I cant remember that made the citizenship route the way to go. I took the easiest and best way out. Decided since we see ourselves here permanently, no longer vote in Canada or pay taxes there and live under the laws and constitution of the US and abide and support them I could take the oath with its nasty part and mean it. Not likely the US and Canada are going to war against each other and I will have to go back on my oath. And actually if I had to go back on the allegiance part of the oath, I would just move back home. You can always say your Canadian. You just donÂt say it to US Customs. Linked is an article on Trust and Estate Planning Considerations When Advising Canadians Living in the US Here is a link that might be useful: expat canadians in us estate and tax planning

While a penny used to be worth something (would buy a decent-sized chunk of candy, when I was a kid) in recent years it has been able to buy less and less. And, as our wealth has expanded and our image of what we "deserve" (or, is that, "have a right to") has grown, increasing numbers of people have spurned it, to the point that they refuse to bend over to pick one up from the street/ground. I'll stop the car and pick up an aluiminum pop can from the roadside, partly because I dislike the mess (but don't carry a garbage bag to pick up all of the stuff). Partly because, having seen refugees make something from ... nothing ... I dislike waste. I doubt that the 2.5 cents that I get for the pop can at the scrap metal dealer will pay for the (itself precious) gas that it takes to start my car rolling again. But - a certain percentage of the cans are beer cans - that yield 10 cents each! In 1947, my Dad bought a mid-grade Ford, called a Mercury Monarch, for $1,600.00 - new, that is. Following a six-year stint in university and seminary, on my first year of employment, in 1953, mainly helping some refugees get back on their feet just after that war in Korea, which had inflated prices, meaning that our level of income was about the highest of all of our overseas service workers, I think, my rate of pay for the year was ... ... wait for it ... ... $1,900.00! At that time, we had a retired doctor who was helping deal with the tuberculosis problem in that country, which was exacerbated by the matter of a substantial portion of the population being rather heavily underfed. He said that inflation was government theft. In those days, I gave him some argument ... ... but now - my argument on that matter would be somewhat muted. With the middle class in the western world being hollowed out as it is - just wait. Before long, in this part of the world ... a lot of currently fairly well off folks will be glad to pick up ... ... well, by then, in Canada, at least, it'll be, of necessity, a nickel. ole joyful

My interpretation of #7 is not necessarily asking 'how was your week(end)?' but more digging for information, like 'what do you do all day?' or 'is your dad dating anyone right now?' or more personal questions about their lifestyle & things. We all want to show an interest in what our kids do, but digging for information goes beyond that. and inviting the other parent in. I guess it depends on the history, but if you move to a new house and the child wants to show mommy or daddy their new room, what harm would it be? It doesn't mean you have to invite them in every week or to stay & visit. When SD wanted to show her room to her mom, I wasn't thrilled with having her in my home, but it was five minutes and she left. and of course, she invited us into her house when she moved because DH wanted to know where SD was staying. It was how he found out that BM was living in a one bedroom loft instead of the six bedroom house she previously claimed. When DH told her SD shouldn't be sleeping on the floor, she finally set up a bed for her in an office. I don't think it's unreasonable to check out where your child is living/sleeping. and there are always going to be things that we don't want to risk never seeing again. SD took all her video games to her mom's house. Then when she wanted to play with them, she got upset because they got lost over there and she didn't have any at our house to play with anymore. DH explained that she's free to take things but it's her responsibility to bring them back or deal with the natural consequence of not having them anymore, (and of course reminded her that if she doesn't want things to get lost, don't take them) but the choice is hers and she thinks more about what she takes and won't take anything she values a lot. (I did purchase her inexpensive clothes & shoes that are her 'weekend' clothes because she can't afford to lose school clothes there.) And part of that problem has also been resolved by not giving SD things we don't want her to take. We buy things that she can use here but they are not 'her' property, they belong to us and she gets to use them. Birthday & Christmas gifts are 'hers'.